Is Writing Becoming Dumber?

You’ve been online for some time now, long enough to see that writing has gone a bit downhill – to say the least. Is this a sign of the times? Is it a trend you need to follow?

What in the heck is going on?

Let’s look at the market today. Nearly everyone is online, it seems, and that means the audience is more than just those who are computer savvy. Writers delivering to those audiences include people who aren’t necessarily interesting or skilled writers, but they do have something to say.

So they say it – on blogs, on social media, on websites, in comments, etc.

Suddenly, writing that isn’t written by professionals surrounds you.

This is understandable, even predictable.

What about the ‘professional’ blogs that are filled with a stunning number of spelling and grammatical errors?

This isn’t necessarily a sign that the writing field has gotten less effective, but it is a sign that writers are responding to their audience’s needs. Perhaps the tone is more casual – or perhaps the blog owner needs to start checking his or her work before hitting ‘Publish.’

Let’s not get carried away either. A case could also be made that if the errors in the writing aren’t harmful, they”re not all that important. Of course, if writing that includes errors turns you off, you can make the choice to not return to the site again.

Or you can just assume that the person is human and bound to make mistakes now and again.

(Now, if the site is nothing but errors, that’s another story and another topic for another day.)

What are your thoughts on the quality of today”s online writing? Please leave a comment.